Factors Determining The Elements of Communal Land for Orang Asli Communities: The Fuzzy Delphi Method

Abstract

Land ownership for Orang Asli is established under the Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954 (Act 134). However, this provision does not protect the Orang Asli's position in terms of land ownership. This has led to claim after claim for land as a result of the competitiveness and conflict that arise in development. The objectives of this research were to analyze the elements of communal land from an expert's perspective using the Fuzzy Delphi method. The Fuzzy Delphi method was used in this quantitative study and a total of 11 experts in the field of land administration related to the development of Orang Asli have been interviewed to get their perspectives on the issue of this research. A questionnaire designed for this study's data collection was based on the results of previous research. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel software and the defuzzification process was used to quantify the significance of communal land components in order to determine the defuzzification score value and address the research objectives. According to the findings of the expert consensus based on the importance of defuzzification, the element of Orang Asli identity is the major element with a defuzzification score value of 0.851. This is because land is viewed as a valuable resource that significantly contributes to self-esteem, economy, biodiversity, purity, and spirituality. There is, however, a lack of agreement among experts about the social element, which has a defuzzification score of 0.798 since development on the land owned by this community could dismantle family and solidarity ties among Orang Asli. The implication is that this aspect of communal land should be highlighted in the development of better and clear land ownership for the Orang Asli community. Following that, the research's findings can assist JAKOA in enacting policies related to Orang Asli customary land in order to protect their land ownership.